Filmmaker Martin Doblmeier Revisits PUC

Emmy
Award-winning filmmaker Martin Doblmeier, creator of over 25 films and owner of
Journey Films, visited Pacific Union College on October 10 to address students
at the Adventist Heritage installment of the Colloquy Speaker Series.

Introduced
by President Heather J. Knight as a “non-Adventist who is interested in how
faith builds extraordinary beliefs and communities,” Doblmeier first visited PUC
in 2012 to present his film The ADVENTISTS,
a documentary that focuses on Adventists’ work in healthcare. Though he did
not intend to pursue further projects about Adventists, his next film The ADVENTISTS 2, looks at Adventism’s
international healthcare ministry. “The documentary explores the idea of how
Adventism is a story of how people go to the far corners and take medical
missions over the world,” Doblmeier told the students, staff, and faculty
gathered in the PUC Church.

After
showing a short clip of the film, Doblmeier told students about his approach to
religion, faith, and spirituality. He began by saying, “I find myself looking
for God through the people of this world… this is my mission.”

Doblmeier
continued by describing how Christians can tend to force others into religion
through “religious arrogance.” He explained that we should rather have our
faith exemplified in a way that will draw others to us. “That is how you grow
in your faith,” he added, noting that the greatest sign of spiritual growth is
“sharing faith without arrogance.”

Recognizing
PUC’s many healthcare-oriented majors, Doblmeier encouraged students to engage
in medical missions. “The greatest sign of our human character is to travel to
other lands, other cultures, other religions, and to touch them, interact with them,
and, if you can, heal them,” he stated.

Doblmeier
then shared a preview of his upcoming film The
Blueprint. The film, which is in the final stages of production, profiles
the Adventist private school system.
The Adventist education system is one of the largest in the world, one
noted for excellence in numerous research studies. Himself a product of
Christian education from elementary school through college, Doblmeier described
classrooms at Christian schools as sacred spaces. “Inviting God in to that
space is genuine faith-based education,” Doblmeier concluded.

Thursday
evening, Doblmeier held screenings of both The
ADVENTISTS 2 and The Blueprint in
Scales Chapel. This was one of the first screenings of The Blueprint; the film will premiere on public television in the spring
of 2014.